State Attorney will not appeal Llarena's decision to prosecute Puigdemont only for disobedience and embezzlement

MADRID, 30 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The State Attorney's Office has decided not to appeal the decision of Supreme Court (TS) magistrate Pablo Llarena to prosecute former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont solely for crimes of disobedience and embezzlement, without adding the new aggravated public disorder, according to government sources consulted by Europe Press.

The 'procés' instructor had to review the prosecution by 1-O of Puigdemont, the former councilors Toni Comín, Lluis Puig and Clara Ponsatí, and the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, as a result of the reform of the Penal Code (CP ) that eliminated the crime of sedition, modified that of embezzlement and created one of aggravated public disorder.

In a first resolution on January 12, Llarena agreed to prosecute the former president for a crime of disobedience --in substitution of the missing sedition-- and one of aggravated embezzlement. In response, both the Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney appealed to urge him to add a third crime: aggravated public disorder.

On March 21, the TS magistrate rejected all the appeals for reform --of accusations and defenses-- to confirm the prosecution of Puigdemont, Comín and Puig for disobedience and embezzlement, and that of Ponsatí and Rovira for disobedience.

This latest resolution can still be challenged on appeal, something that Puigdemont's defense has advanced that it will do in the same vein as his previous appeal, when he accused Llarena of "ignoring" the reform of the CP. The tax and government sources consulted confirm to Europa Press that this will not be the case with the Public Prosecutor's Office or the State Attorney's Office, which have chosen not to raise the matter to the Criminal Chamber.

The appeals that are presented will go to the Second Chamber, without the six magistrates who made up the court that judged the cause of the 'procés' and who sentenced the former vice president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Oriol being able to form part of this decision. Junqueras to 13 years in prison and disqualification.

It should be remembered that the court of the 'procés', which also had to review its sentence in light of the new Penal Code, agreed to sentence the pro-independence leaders who had been convicted of sedition and embezzlement for disobedience and aggravated embezzlement, also ruling out disorders aggravated publics.

In his order last week, Llarena responded to the request made by the State Prosecutor's Office and Lawyer's Office that the penal reform "has not modified the crime of sedition to be subject to new legal requirements or reduce its sentence, but rather has repealed it" .

"And, since the accusations cannot divide the provisions of the new law and evade this repeal, the application of the reform entails a decriminalization of the article that was applicable under the previous legislation," he stressed.

In this sense, Llarena indicated to the State Legal Services, which accused him of limiting his margin of accusation in the face of the eventual trial, that he cannot be "oblivious" to the qualification during the investigation phase, nor allow accusations to be maintained. "despite evaluating that the Penal Code has been modified".

In her brief, State attorney Rosa María Seone insisted that the examining magistrate could not "exhaust" the range of crimes to which the accusations could appeal in view of a possible trial because, to do so, he would be "depriving the accusations of the opportunity to assess the application" of such criminal offenses, in this case, that of aggravated public disorder.

The lawyer defended that the facts that before could be prosecuted as sedition could now be covered by the "new criminal type of aggravated public disorder", since "this application will be more favorable". Llarena, however, dismissed these arguments and confirmed her decision not to include the crime of aggravated public disorder in the prosecution of the escaped independence leaders.